Build Background

• Involve students in a discussion of what it would be like to be an explorer. Ask what or where they would explore, whom they would take with them, what supplies they would need, and how long they would be gone.
• Extend the discussion by talking about the pros and cons of being a modern-day explorer.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Strategy: Summarization

• Give students a copy of the book and have them preview the front and back covers of the book and read the title. Have students discuss what they see on the covers and offer ideas as to what kind of book this is and what it might be about.
• Direct students to the table of contents. Remind students that the table of contents provides an overview of what the book is about. Each chapter title provides an idea of what they will read in the book. After reviewing the table of contents, model using it to summarize what the book is about. Point out that although the chapter titles don't provide specific information, by referring to the title of the book, you can get an idea that all are telling about Lewis and Clark's journey.
• Think aloud: To summarize what I've read, I need to decide what's important and what isn't, and then organize the important information into a few sentences. I don't have much to go on yet, but each of the chapter titles must be important or it wouldn't be in the table of contents. Here's how I can summarize the table of contents: The table of contents tells me that in the story of Lewis and Clark, I'm going to read about what they did to prepare for the expedition. Then I'm going to read about the parts of their journey that were on a river and in the Plains. I'm also going to find out something about where they spent the winter somewhere along the way.
• Reinforce that using your own words to summarize information helps you understand and remember what you've read – even the table of contents.
• Have students preview the rest of the book, looking at illustrations and sidebar text.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Remind students of the strategies they can use to work out words they don't know. For example, they can use what they know about letter and sound correspondence to figure out the word. They can look for base words and prefixes and suffixes. They can use the context to work out meanings of unfamiliar words.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Point out a word in bold, for example, the word uninhabited on page 13. Model how students can use the prefix to figure out the meaning of the word. Ask students to tell what it means to inhabit a place. If necessary, tell students the word means to live in. Then ask students to tell the meaning of the prefix un-. Have students follow along as you read the sentence to confirm the meaning of the word.
• Remind students that they should check whether words make sense by rereading the sentence.
• For additional teaching tips on word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book, keeping in mind the main ideas of each section and how they might summarize them.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read the Introduction. Tell them to underline the important events. Tell students to go back and reread the section if they finish before everyone else.
• When they have finished reading, ask students to identify the 2 most important events in the Introduction. Model summarizing the important events.
• Think aloud: As I read the Introduction, I looked for the important events, and underlined them. I underlined the sentence that told that Congress set aside the money for the expedition, and that Jefferson chose Lewis to lead the expedition. I also underlined that Lewis asked Clark to help. Then I underlined that Jefferson bought 820,000 acres of land – the Louisiana Purchase – for $15 million dollars. (Use an overhead or write the above sentences on the board.) Now all I need to do is decide which are the most important so I can summarize the Introduction. Since I'm only interested in the most important events, I'm not going to use the sentence about Congress setting aside the money for the expedition, even though I know Lewis and Clark had to have money to buy supplies. I think it's very important that Jefferson asked Lewis to lead the expedition to find the Northwest Passage, and that Lewis asked Clark to help. I also think the Louisiana Purchase was a very important event because it made the United States twice as big as it was, so I'll use it, too. When I summarize the events in the order that they happened, this is what it sounds like: President Thomas Jefferson chose Meriwether Lewis to lead an expedition to find the Northwest Passage. Lewis asked his friend Clark to go with him. Just before Lewis and Clark left, Jefferson doubled the size of the United States by buying an area of land called the Louisiana Purchase.
• Tell students to read the remainder of the story. Have them look for the important events in each chapter.

     Tell the students to make a small question mark in their books beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows.

Reflect on the Reading Strategies

• Ask students what words they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they could read these words using word-attack strategies and context clues.
• Reinforce how summarizing the important events in each chapter helps keep them actively engaged. Point out that mentally summarizing the important events in the order in which they happened in each chapter will help them understand and remember what they have read.

Comprehension: Sequencing

• Introduce and model: Explain that many writers present events in a book in the order in which they happened so the reader can make sense of them. This is especially true when the events build upon each other, moving from beginning to end in logical order. The chapter titles in the table of contents tell the order in which the events in the story are written.
• Check for understanding: Ask students to look at the table of contents. Have them tell the first thing explorers did.
• Give students the Sequencing worksheet. Explain that they are to place the letter of each event in the correct order on the timeline. They may refer to their books if necessary.

Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage: Identify and use adverbs

• Direct students to the next to last sentence on page 6. Review or explain that this sentence begins with an adverb. If necessary, explain that an adverb is a word that describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Tell students that writers use adverbs to give the reader more information, and that an adverb usually tells how something is done. Ask students to tell what the adverb suddenly is describing in the sentence (the verb had become). Explain that adverbs can be placed in several different places in a sentence. Write the sentence on the board. Ask students to tell how the sentence can be reworded using the adverb. (Lewis and Clark's expedition had suddenly become much more important, or Lewis and Clark's expedition suddenly had become much more important.)
• Reinforce by directing students to the paragraph on page 7. Ask them to find the sentence that has an adverb, and to tell what verb it describes.
• Hand out the Adverbs worksheet and explain that students will read the sentences, circle the adverbs, underline the words they modify, and then reword the sentence in order to place the adverb somewhere else in the sentence. Make sure that students reread their sentences to ensure that the adverbs still modify the same words.

Vocabulary: Multiple-meaning words

• Read the first sentence on page 4. Point out the word bank and ask students to tell what it means. Ask students to think of another meaning for the word (a place where money is kept). Write the word and its meanings on the board. Explain that some words have more than 1 meaning and the meaning that is used depends on how the word is used in the sentence.
• Direct students to the last sentence in the second paragraph on page 5. Ask them to find a word that can have more than 1 meaning (record). Explain that this word can be pronounced 2 ways, can be a verb or a noun, and that it has several meanings. Ask students to suggest meanings (a written account (n.), to make a written account (v.); a disk designed to be played on a phonograph (n.), to make a audio recording (v.).
• Give students the Multiple-Meaning Words worksheet and explain the example. Tell students to complete the worksheet. Discuss their answers.

Independent Reading

• Allow the students to read their books independently or with a partner. Partners can take turns reading parts of the book.

Home Connection

• Give the students their books to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Writing Connection

• Have students write a first-person story telling what it was like to be a member of the Corps of Discovery.

Social Studies Connection

• Have students research the first segment of Lewis and Clark's expedition. Have them transfer the route the expedition took to a modern-day map to see where the explorers traveled.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• sequence events from the text.
• recognize and use adverbs.
• identify and use multiple-meaning words.

Comprehension Checks